Saturday, December 31, 2005

OctoberThe start of my 4th quarter of my year, 2005, was plagued with many decision making situations.

As stated with my previous entry. The decision to go overseas for an attachment stint came into effect. I was expected to stay one month with the Singapore regional headquarters of my attachment company, Scandent Solutions Corporation.

The background of my attachment company… the company can be considered as a Multi Nations Corporation as it has operations at Singapore, India(Chennai, Mumbai and Bangalore) and with several establishments around the United States of America.

It has always been my desire to work in a MNC as I want to be exposed with the working conditions at several different locations for the same company. My attachment stint would be better if I could simply travel around their different establishments at different areas of the world… but, dream on… :P

Now, back to the topic… the decision for an overseas attachment. For the month of October, as mentioned above, I started working at the office located in Singapore. It was a nice place… situated at Jurong, International Business Park(aka IBP). It wasn’t my first time working in this area. This was so as in the past, when I was working with MobileOne(M1), I had to travel all the way to this portion of Singapore. In fact, my previous workplace is just beside the office establishment… such coincidence! *grinz*

The first month of work there was merely training sessions for us… getting us ready for our about-to-start work at India, Chennai. Everything went pretty smooth throughout… and yup… before I know, my one month attachment with the Singapore establishment was over.

Now, for my thoughts… from my 21yrs of life in Earth, I have never thought that I would ever lay my foot on the soil of India… hahaha… serious! I mean, not many people will have thoughts of coming to India… especially for no particular reasons… so, I would say, my decision back then was definitely one to be applauded for… hahahah… but, till now, I have no regrets coming as this trip definitely mould me to become a better person… will mention more about it as the blog posting goes on…

As for the other areas beside my decision and work, there were also definitely feelings going on… that’s so typical of an emotional aArOn…

Hmmm… well, I would say, October is a turning point to my feelings… a turning point whereby I started to lose hope. In fact, there were times during this month which I thought back… why was I so so so stubborn…? why would my friends lie to me about what they see and understand…? Why am I heading into nowhere?

There were so many whys back then… which I simply can’t answer myself… or, I don’t even know where to get the answer from… still, I struggled myself through all these thoughts… thinking that everything will turn out fine once I forget about what happened to me for the past few months… and, yes… I did it! I finally decided, this isn’t the way to go on… why am I pinning hopes on simply a “no-hope” situation?

Just like what others say… this is “reality”… so, “Welcome to the real world!(both in terms of emotions and work!)” hahaha…

NovemberYeah! I finally lay foot on India!

From the start, when we landed in the airport, everything seems very much like what I have pictured in my mind… a very lay-back feeling of the place, whereby I am going to stay for almost the next 3mths of my life… From the looks of the airport… till the conditions outside the airport… and lastly, the road condition… everything seems to fall into my thoughts over how India looks like… well, but, that’s typically how it looks like for a developing country… especially when India is duped as the largest population democratic country… things are definitely very hard to be controlled… as in the living conditions and such…

Well, back at the airport, we were greeted by our back-in-Singapore immediate supervisor, Ms. Padmini… she was in India to settle some household stuff and, to lay the “path” well for our coming stay.

She was able to organize everything well, and ensured that we are fine with the living condition before she head back to Singapore. Was very grateful to her as she has shown us lots of hospitality, in terms of both her job and personal obligation. Wait… I don’t think its her job obligation to help us up here… so, yup… very nice person we have here!

Oh… by the way, forgot to mention this… the day we arrived here was known as Dewali Day(Deepavali). Everywhere was fireworks… you know, those kind whereby we can only get to see during National Day… envy us, right? You wouldn’t be envying us if you are here for more than 2hrs… its so damn noisy and irritating when you just keep hearing the sounds of explosions… worse, the sound continued even the next day! This time round, it was louder… they are putting firecrackers everywhere lor… those kind which are banned in Singapore… wah lao… can you imagine the noise pollution??!?! How I wish I brought my ear plucks back then… hahahaha….

For the start of our work in Chennai, we started out again with training… this time round, the training sessions scheduled for us was more to those verbal types of talk-sessions. We were introduced to the basic operations of software development in their office at Chennai. Followed by a test of our abilities… wooohooo… yeah… there was also a test of our patience… by providing us with limited Internet connectivity and a legacy system to facilitate with our works here… hahaha… but, essentially, the system has sure helped to increase our patience. :P

Alright… at the start of our trip, we were all very homesick… missing all the things which we took for granted back in Singapore. For example, the well-controlled traffic condition… the well-established electricity supply infrastructure… the unlimited usage of the Internet… the always well-cooked food prepared by our mum… the cheap usage of toilet rolls… always on time taxi bookings, the ready-to-drink piped water that runs from our tap and many more!

Hahaha… why did I explicitly mentioned those above? Well… here is the justification… Well-controlled traffic condition, hmmm… can you imagine a road which is planned to accommodate a 3-lane traffic being used by like 5 vehicles at one go…? Here in Chennai, if you wind down your window(in fact, you have always got to wind it down as air-conditioned vehicles is like only 50% of the vehicles on the road), you will be able to reach out for the door of the vehicle next to you without stretching at all! This explains how close they drive to each other…

next, the well-established electricity supply infrastructure… have you experience frequent black-outs, excluding the one which we experience last year? So frequent that when you are asleep, suddenly, the whole place turned so dark… and you start wondering… who switched off all the lights? Then, slowly, you realize, eh! ya ah! The fan is not moving too! Hahaha… after that, you realize… did the electricity just went off again? Hahaha…

Ever been living on limited bandwidth usage since the time of dial-up connections were over? Well, we face a limitation of bandwidth usage here… so much so that I can’t surf the websites which I used to in Singapore… every single entry to the net has definitely be “planned”… hahaha… that is to avoid any unwanted usage of bandwidth… :X

Well-cooked food… hmmm… been eating chicken here… chicken that is sometimes so blend… sometimes, so salty… and most of the times, oily!!! Hahaha… that is “cooked” by our “Chef”… Jimmy… oh man… at the very least of it, it is somewhat edible… better than nothing…

A toilet roll that cost you about SGD1… heard of it? Its everywhere here in Chennai! We all realize that the people here doesn’t really rely much on toilet rolls… that explains the expensive nature of it… hahaha… just a single roll can cost you so much… that with the amount you pay, you can get half a dozen of it back in Singapore! :X

The most headache problem which we face here… the always “on-time” taxi bookings which we make… imagine… calling for a taxi to be at your workplace at supposingly 1745hrs… then, they only come to you at 1930hrs… how piss can you get? And, it isn’t only once… but more than 5 times!!! Oh man… we will probably be named the most patient Singaporeans around… wahahha….

Lastly, the “ready-to-drink” state of water we have back in Singapore… the water here in Chennai… hmmm… could be in yellow colored state… could be in brown colored state… aiyooo… there are so many different states of it! *grinz*

It was during the late of November, whereby I got to meet up with this person known as Shannon… he is a Singaporean working here in Chennai. He has also been here for more than 2years…

The first month of stay at Chennai is definitely something I won’t forget in my life… ;)

DecemberInto the second month of my stay in Chennai… everything passed much faster when we started to explore around Chennai…

This is the month whereby most of the happenings in Chennai occurred! Hahaha… but, before I start narrating what has happened… I shall start with something I wish to mention…

For the start of the month, many things happened… this includes birthday celebrations which I have missed… and many others… most importantly, there is this event, someone’s birthday occurring this month… well, didn’t do much though… but, what I did was like, a promise I make to myself… wanting to make someone’s birthday very different from the other years she have spent… don’t think I have achieved it… but still, at least I make an attempt in completing what I had wanted to do… though, it might not be significant to that person… but, it marks the end of all my months of waiting… putting all my feelings for her to rest… and, hoping, it will never come back… ;)

Back to my life in Chennai…

Most of the time, we were walking around the place during the weekend… from places to eat… till the places to shop… and also, the places to explore!

During one of our exploration trips, by a chance meeting, we met up with Shannon again!

He told us several things which I kept thinking about… that is, how many times would you be coming to India… for what reason would you be here… and, what is the point of staying at home during the weekends while the thing you could do is to go out and explore the outskirts of Chennai?

Really found his words very true… especially when I enjoy so much of the scenery when we were out of the city area… so many things which I don’t get in Singapore… I will be able to see it here in Chennai!

So, during the second last weekend, we finally materialize our first trip out of Chennai City… that is to an outskirt town of it known as Mahabalipuram. Basically, it’s a place whereby there are lots of stone scriptures and shore temples around. There were quite a number of pictures I took… but, will only post it up when I return back to Singapore! Like what I mentioned above… bandwidth usage is very limited here… hahaha… so, no choice… :X Well, did I forgot to mention that the scenery I got to see during the trip is breath-taking!? In fact, it was fabulous!

Besides that, I also took a chance to walk past the slump area which is just beside my apartment… so many things to see! Usually, I only get to see those sights in documentaries… now, I actually get to experience it in real life… many thoughts just came upon me and kept me thinking of it for quite sometime… that is, how much I should appreciate the surroundings… aiyahz… its all within my own thinking…

Oh ya… another thing I forgot to mention… this month was also a month whereby we were being shown great hospitality from Shannon and his wife… they have been inviting us out for meals… and also, btw, the trip mentioned above to Mahabalipuram, they were the one bring us around too… hmmm…. So nice of them… especially when they have no obligation at all to bring us around… whats more… they were the ones who presented to me, the first laksa ever found in Chennai, that’s home cooked from their place! Tomorrow, that’s next year, 01/01/2006, they will be showing me the first ever seen Nasi Lemak! Hahahah…

Alright… should end this lengthy entry here… but, before I do, here is my new year resolution! The first ever I gonna make in my 21years… that is, “To curb my temper down and hopefully, don’t get upset with things that is going to occur in my upcoming year ahead!”… besides that, I also have some personal resolutions… which I won’t mention here… good luck for all of you back in Singapore… whether you are working or studying… hope you live it to the fullest! *grinz*

Thursday, December 29, 2005

JulyThis month came on to me as a very busy month… both physically and mentally…

It was a physically busy month as I have got to rush up with my school work… from minor stuff like meeting up with schedule for class… till the submission of projects…

Especially for my major project… so many things to pass up during the month of July! Oh man… during this month, I have been leaving my home at about 0700hrs… stayed in school till up to about 2200hrs… simply more than 12hrs… but, as compared to the past and now, I would rather do what I did… staying in school… and getting things done… at least I still have the company of my friends… ;)

Aside with major project… there were lots of submissions for both my other 2 core subjects… namely, Enterprise Application Development (ENAD) and Distributed Systems and Connectivity (DSCN)… all the submissions coming at almost the same time!!! Its definitely a great experience of what time constraints is back then…

Now, as for the mentally exhausting part… unfortunately, it’s all about emotions again…

This part, which I have never mentioned in my previous Reflection posting, is that, I have fallen deeply in love with someone… alright… this person rejected me, but still, I am having this one-sided love affair with her… in Chinese, we call it, “一厢情愿” …

I am foolish on my part making this relationship as a one-sided affair matter… but still, somehow, I thought I would stand a chance in it… but, I was proven utterly wrong! It makes me feel so stupid… doing everything which is fruitless… but still, I did it… till now, I would say, I have no regrets in doing all that I have done… just that there is a small regret within the process… that is, I have tarnished my friendship with this person…

Oh well, to her, it seems meaningless… whether things carry on as the same as before… or changes… but, to me, it meant everything~

I went as far as to announcing that I have no longer any desire to be going into a relationship(which I still stand-by this decision till today)… hahaha…

Looking back at what I have done… it is really silly… but, still, the actions I did was justifiable… as I have never fell so madly in love with someone before… *grinz*

AugustIt has always been the same… started out the month with celebrations over Singapore’s birthday… I have always love celebrating it… always making me feel so much patriotic than the other months…

I remember that this year was slightly more different than the rest… I spent the start of the day, National Day itself, driving around… as this year was the year for showcasing the all the defenses’ vehicles, which is done every five years once, quite a number of the roads around the city area is closed… that resulting me in making quite a number of detours while trying to get to my destination… during normal times, I just need take a 20minutes drive down to Suntec… but, due to the detours, I took about more than an hour to reach the place!!! Hahaha…

The month also came on as quite emotional for me… not in the area of relationship… but, in terms of friendship…

This was so as the start of the month actually marks the end of the office term I held in my previous club, Information Technology Studies Club. This “end of office term” ended with a nice chapter… as we have won the Best Constituency Club of the Year 2004/2005… which is very nice! The only time which IT School won this title was back when Applied Science and Information Technology Schools shared the studies club… known as ITAS(Information Technology and Applied Science) Studies Club…

It was so significant as it also shows that the school, Temasek Polytechnic itself, appreciates all the efforts the committee members have contributed… feel so nice when I heard the news of our achievement… at least, now, I can tell people to take a look at the achievement board… which I left my name in it! *ooops* at least the club’s name lah… *grinz*

Like the previous months… this month was also no exception to matters relating to the heart… shall skip mentioning about it this month as I am afraid readers might just go, “Aiyah… here aArOn goes again… talking about nonsense…” *grinz*

SeptemberWeee!!! ¾ of the year! Hahaha… the month started out with the most crucial timing of my polytechnic life… that is the presentation of my major project!

Worked on this project for the past 2+months… it was the brainchild of Elvin’s idea… working on it did pose lots of difficulties… as Mingsui and I are both unsure of the happenings in the photo industry, that’s what the main theme of the project is about, we have just got Elvin to rely on…

There were struggles throughout the different phases of the project… started out with the planning… to its execution… till the completion of it… each phase, carries the blood and sweat from the three of us!

Lucky enough for all of us, we did eventually complete this project… or, shld I say, 90% done… 10% was left “hanging in the air”… hahaha… how come? Coz of my laziness!!! *bleahz*

Looking back then, it was really fun working with the two of my major project group mates… we got to know each other better through the work process and started to appreciate each other better… due to the major project, Elvin also got his new laptop… hahahaa… which is what Mingsui and I have been encouraging him to do so… *grinz* (Elvin… must thank us leh… for urging you to get the laptop… hahahaha….)

Ultimately, the project presentation went quite okay… but, I remember that my module did ended up with some errors… due to the hasty integration process… but, no choice… poor time management from me! :X

Ok… studies aside… this was also the month whereby I get to know more friends well… we started going out till late in the night… or, should I say, very early in the morning… hahaha…. They are Eric, Yong hon and Jason… we were like always going out till the wee hours… its usually for supper… if not, just a chill out session between the guys… But, before going for supper or the chill out session, we will always play games online till very late… hahaha… that is why, we could only afford to come out that late… ;)

I remember doing silly things during this month too… silly things like replicating a whole 24-CDs Korean series show, which I brought to India to watch…, for someone… but, in the end, didn’t get to pass it to her as she have already gotten herself one copy… hahaha… besides this, I also went on to going Sim Lim Square, wearing one sleeveless t-shirt… which is pretty run down already… aiyo! So damn paiseh… but, no choice, I needed to visit the place to get my CDs for the replicating process… was just so gan jiong… hahaha… (I still can remember myself feeling so paiseh… gotta work pass the crowd at Sim Lim Square… if I didn’t remember wrongly, it was still a Sunday somemore! *wah lao…* =X)

Oh, before I forget to mention, this month also came along whereby I needed to make a big decision… that is to go for an overseas attachment, which is where I am now… or, to stay in Singapore with my Internship Programme… I guess everyone knows about my decision of the former than the latter… that explains why I am in India now… HAHAHA…

Alright, that basically is the end of this posting… can’t think of anymore… *weehee*

Wednesday, December 28, 2005

One of the reason, is that I will be having 21st birthday celebration on this month! At an initial point of time, I was much looking forward to the actual day of my birthday… it brings so much anxiety and happiness to know that I am turning 21…! But, when the time draws nearer, I started to dread this feeling… It makes me feel so damn old… and, reminding me of how much I miss the time being an ignorant teenager… budging my life away… enjoying the youthful times… oh man… kind of miss those lifestyle… *grinz*

Another reason for looking forward to the month was that I was going to work myself outta my mind. As what it is always known as… “working no day, no night” is definitely my philosophy when I get very engrossed with my work… Can you imagine? Working like at 2200hrs during the night till the midnight hour mark… then, heading home, rest awhile… and continue working at 0530hrs in the morning stretching the timing till about 0900hrs… after which, proceeding straight to school… that is what people always say as, worker-holic… In another term, no life-er… :)

Lastly, of course, my mum first trip outta Singapore w/o the family… She was heading for Shanghai with my relatives… my Dad couldn’t make it for the trip due to work commitments… while I, gotta work and study too… So, that leaves my mum alone going for the trip… Not that I am happy that she is going for the trip, then, I can havoc at home… just that, I simply want her to enjoy the overseas trip…

Now, to further talk about the happenings of this month, many things happened out of my expectation of it.

Firstly, let’s talk about my birthday. On my birthday itself, was actually feeling very bored… a total contrast between my thinking of the day’s happenings with the actual day itself. From the morning till the afternoon, I was practically staying at home with no program in mind… This was the time whereby something unexpected happened. I actually went on to send a SMS to one of my friend, whom I know ever since my secondary school years, Joycelyn. I have simply got no idea why I did that, but, I was glad that I did it…

After rounds of persuasion, I was able to convince her to go out with me… with the condition that I have to go fetch her at her school’s hostel… which is all the way to the west of Singapore… This meeting I had with her is like our very first meeting ever since the secondary years… was hoping that she won’t change so much till I can’t recognize her… hahaha… luckily, she didn’t change much! *grinz* had a fun time chatting with her… getting to know her better, in terms of her current living style and such, and lastly, a good movie watching time too! At the night, due to time constraints, she was forced to follow me home and then, sending my mum to the airport for her shanghai trip… (btw, Joycelyn was my ex-girlfriend…) So, the meeting between her and my mum was then, (errr…) their third meeting ever since I got to know Joycelyn… (the number of meetings my mum had with her is lesser than the years we know each other!) well, for poor Joycelyn, she had to actually withstand all the looks from my relatives, taking her as my current girlfriend(which isn’t true… hahaha… poor thing!), when we were at the airport… :D

Now, besides this meeting with Joycelyn I had, I would like to take the opportunity to apologise to my caregroup, C040, friends who have actually arranged for a meet-up session which I failed to attend during my birth date… (dui bu qi! I am just too lousy in time management during times…) it was so nice of you people to give me 21 different gifts… although I received only 20 of them… as the last one was the birthday cake… curious to know what are the contents of it? Well, there are many many things… of course, the “traditional” present which friends always give each other during birthdays is there… condoms… hahaha… besides that, still got exotic ones like a tong-like underwear? Hahaha… these people are nuts… till now, the gifts which I have explicitly mentioned are kept UN-USED. Don’t expect me to wear that “sexy” underwear as I seriously don’t dare to… *LOL*… the rest of the gifts varies from cologne all the way to chocolates and such… thanks a lot, my friends… really appreciate it loads!

May

May came on as a month just like April… packed with work assignments at the Airport… besides the work commitments I had, I also got to attend several meetings in school for the upcoming event, Freshman Orientation Week a.k.a. Week-zero Orientation. This time round, I am a much busier man as I am one of the three organizers of this event.

As the event is expecting an audience of not lesser than 300, you bet… it involves hell loads of planning… So, most of the days in the first half of the month was spent preparing and organizing the things that are needed for the event… Besides the preparation work, I was also expected to help up with a pre-Orientation Leader camp, which was organized to help train potential Orientation Leaders from the pool of students in the Information Technology School. This event occurred right before the Week Zero Orientation, therefore, besides the planning of the orientation, I was also involved in the actual event’s execution date, which is due on the second half of May.

For the Week Zero Orientation, everything went on pretty smoothly. This wouldn’t be possible if any of my volunteer helpers weren’t there to support every single decisions make by the organizers. Therefore, I would like to thank all of them… for their dedication and precious time taken and spent during the course of the event’s execution. You people were simply so important!!! Next, the lecturers who are involved in the event. These people includes, Mr. Victor Foo, Mr. Leong and Mr. J. Chee. Thanks for all the support help I have received from you people… and, without you all, the event wouldn’t have come to such a fantastic ending. Lastly, the participants of the event itself, the freshies! I would like to thank you people for being so co-operative during the event itself… tolerating to some of my lousy organizing decisions and, for enjoying yourselves during the event! *grinz* =D

Now, May was also crucial as we start to make preparations for the upcoming Major Project, which we will be having in our 3rd year of studies in Temasek Polytechnic. Firstly, I would like to apologize to Aixuan, for omitting her out of the project team due to the next demands of the Major Project Committee for limiting the number of members in the team from 4 to 3. As for what happened during the end of May was that we got to know our supervising lecturer and the evaluator for the project.

With all these, it basically sums up for the month’s happenings.

June

This month started out with me getting real busy with my school work. Even though there were only a few subjects I was scheduled to take for my final study semester in Temasek Polytechnic, The study stress which I received this semester is no lighter than others! The reason being so are that the few subjects I took up can be considered as “heavy-weight” subjects! A lot of output from these subjects were expected from us… making everything so cramped up and such… who would imagine that when they look at our lightly-scheduled timetable… *tsk!*

Besides the study stress I received, (by the way, I didn’t work for the whole month of June…), this was also the month whereby I was very occupied with my emotional feelings.

After much thinking, I have decided to give relationship another try in my life… but, I was rejected this chance by the other party. Well, maybe the she is just not ready to accept someone new into her life… or, maybe, I am not worthy of her… It was pretty hard to accept such a decision, considering that everything turned out pretty fine in the past, as in the times were spent together and such.

On the other hand, it was also my first time facing rejection…(not that I am so damn good looking…) well, guess everything has its first time… and, so, I had my… of course, I have to respect her decision, which I did…, but, things started to make a very big twist… because of my moment of folly, I have destroyed my friendship un-wittedly… till this day, I still blame myself for all these happenings… which is really tat bad…

Hmmm… with all these happenings, it concludes up my 2nd quarter of year 2005!

Tuesday, December 27, 2005

JanuaryJanuary marks the second term of my second year of studies in Temasek Polytechnic… back then, I was really really engrossed with both my work, at Chan Brothers(working early in the morning and late at night) and my club matters(was the then-Honorary Secretary of Information Technology Studies Club…). Club matters includes heavy involvment in the planning phase for the upcoming event, Temasek Polytechnic Open House. At that time, i was really appreciative to my ex-girlfriend for being so patient and understanding, though there were times we quarreled with regards to my commitments over our relationship, it was really hard for her as I was her pillar of support.. this was exceptionally the case as she was facing some problem with her studies and such..

FebruaryFebruary came along with likes of workload which i was facing in the 1st month of 2005. This time round the workload was even more for me to handle… firstly, my studies… it was when all the projects started to create a bottle-neck style of submission dates… all coming at once… secondly, my club matters… especially when events were drawing near… both the Open House preparation and Honorary Secretary workload… lastly, my relationship…

lets talk point by point… starting off with the first matter, my school work… things were really very bad… but, lucky enough for me, I was in the same tutorial group with one of my caregroup mate, Mingsui… most of our projects during my second semester in year 2 was practically done with her… we were there to support each other whenever needed… in terms of school work… well, she is one who I will define as hardworking… though, I think I am clever-er than her… wahahah… but, like what I said, with her attitude on working hard, she was able to excel better in terms of results than I do… yeah… I was plain lazy back then… not as if I am more hardworking now… but, at least better than the past… *grinz* I can still practically remember us trying to complete our web-based application, a.k.a. WBAD, together… working throughout the night… especially till the actual submission of the project… oh man… it was a killer subject, I would say… firstly, my tutor just simply can’t teach… secondly, my lecturer can’t speak… how to work like that!? Hahaha… ridiculous… it was also this semester when I get to know Jason Tiang, another buddy friend of my… hahaha… we just crap with each other throughout the whole semester…

Now, for the second point, my club matters… as I have mentioned… planning of the Open House got underway concurrently with the run of my school work… though its not my first time planning for such a big event, there were still many problems which cropped out during the phase of planning. We were expected to make plans for the event from a zero budget status… totally no money subsidized from the school… so, I would say, it is a very tough job… but, with help coming from our back then club chairman, Mr. Victor Foo, things started to turn well… besides Mr. Foo, there was also Mr. Vijayan rendering whatever help we needed… lets not forget about the sub-committee volunteers who accommodated to our demands… especially Yvonne and Darren, who spent their time helping us with the planning of the event, they were the co-organizers of the event selected by Mingsui and I, lastly, my main committee members for giving me a helping hand whenever needed… the event wouldn’t have turned out to be a success if any of the people mentioned above were missing… they definitely played an integral part in the every success enjoyed with the completion of the event…

Lastly, my relationship… it was my very first time spending my Valentine’s Day(14th Feb) with my girlfriend… errr… not talking about my ex-girlfriend only… but, it was my first time spending the 14th Feb. with a girl(for the past few years.. i will just stay at home and be accompanied by my computer...). I would say, it turned out pretty well… although in the end of the day, there were some issues that cropped up, making the day end with a scar on it. 2 days after the Valentine’s Day, my relationship took a very big turn around… just the day before, she told me everything will turn out fine… but, now, she is actually asking for a break-up… how did all these happened? I have simply got no idea at all… maybe it was due to my packed schedule… maybe just simply was that I took her for granted… ? well, whatever the real reason is, the decision she make, definitely shattered every bit of my heart… Did it really hurt me that much? Yes, it really did… it hurts so much that I almost lost my self-esteem when I tried all out to get what I lost… but, ultimately, I got hold of myself… that took me a great effort… it was my fifth failure in relationships… and, it ain’t really easy to pick yourself up after failing so many times…

MarchNext up was March… things turned out much better than the previous month… tasted the fruits of success from the months of planning for the Open House event… so much preparations done… still remember that planning for the event took place till late at night in school… if I didn’t remember wrongly, it was about 2000hrs before we decided to call it a day with the planning… experiencing what was known as “heavy planning”… hahaha… but, it was all worthwhile in the end… everyone enjoyed themselves… school guides making new friends among their peers and of course, with the visitors of the school…

Unfortunately for me, the end of the event did not really mark the end of work for me. This was so as planning for the Orientation Leader Camp, which was suppose to be held on May, started to get on the way, which means, there were loads of paper work to be done and completed with… these includes proposals, heavy planning and also, minutes for meetings!!!

Besides club matters taking place, I was also scheduled for final submissions of projects for the different subjects… subjects ranging from Web-based Application Development, Graphics User-Interface and Software Engineering… so many many work to be done… back then, how I wished the time was able to stop for me to work on the projects… ;)

Monday, December 26, 2005

we went outta Chennai City to have a look at the outskirts of it! everyone agreed that the view at the outskirts of the city is definitely breathe taking.. !

the view i saw was definitely of the same with the view i get when i am on a cruise.. if not, its better than the cruise view..! u can see the sun beam shining through the clouds.. and shining onto the Bay of Bengal.. waaa... fascinating!

did i make it sound like a view you never should have missed? it is true! it is nothing but the truth! hahaha.. just too bad as my camera couldn't get such a nice view..

besides the sunshine, we were also able to view the huge wave produced by the Bay.. its really huge lor.. so much so that there was this advice not to swim as the wave current is way too strong.. i think the wave was possibily the height of one level.. not joking.. its really that high.. but, i really enjoyed the scenery which i got during the trip.. it will be definitely cherished within my memories!

oh.. talking so much about the scenery.. forgotten to mention where we went.. hahaha.. as stated above.. we went to the outskirts of Chennai City.. known as Mahabalipuram.. (don't know if i spell it correctly.. initially, i used to have this pronuaction barrier.. hahaha..) it goes... Ma-ha-ba-li-pu-ram.. includes some.. you know.. head shaking to make it sound right.. (no offence at all!) ;)

the place features quite a number of stone temples.. but, there was this particular area whereby you can view both the stone temple and the shore.. but, the entrance fee was a whopping 250rupees!!!(5 USD or 10 SGD).. and, for their locals.. it is only 10rupees.. 25times difference...!! but, never mind.. lucky for us, Shannon came along with his wife.. and he brought us around to another place.. to see the temple.. but, no shore.. hahaha.. still, everyone was appreciative to his hospitality!

after the hectic morning of moving around, btw, we started out at about 0800hrs(Chennai Time), we settled down in the afternoon at this seafood restaurant which Shannon usually patronize.. the seafood there is.. woohoo!! we ordered each a tiger.. or, should i say, monster prawn! hahaha.. why do i use that term? coz the prawn's head is as been as the middle finger!!! with comparison to Nassa's fingers lah.. (don't worry.. i took a photo of it.. will post it up at a later time..) besides the "monster" prawns.. we also had calamari.. french fries.. and lastly, lobsters!!! hahaha... :P~~~

but, the price was pretty high to pay for.. yeah.. u think we pay? nope.. it was Shannon who footed the bill.. so kind of him.. making time to accompany us for the trip.. and yet, footing our bill.. wah lao.. where to find such good soul in Singapore?! hahaha..

when we are done with our lunch.. we headed back to Chennai City.. stopped at a coffee house known as "Coffee Day" to have a cup of coffee.. what a nice way to spend your sunday! hahaha.. had brownies.. and other several stuffs there.. nice, i would say.. not to mention, we actually had some problems at the coffee house.. which, i shouldn't say what it is.. :)

before i continue with the iti, i forgot to mention, before we make the trip to the coffee house, we actually stopped at a shopping area known as "Malayana", if i am not wrong.. weird place.. why? coz you need to pay entrance fee to enter the shopping mall! it will cost 250rupees!(50 rupees for the entrace fee and 200rupees for the shopping voucher.. what a way to ensure pple spend money at ur shopping mall..) nonetheless, deterred by the pricing, we headed straight to the previously mentioned coffee house..

straight after the dose of caffine, we continued our journey to a boutique.. known as "Fashion Folks".. as usual.. spent lots of money there buying stuffs.. wa lao.. come to think about it.. i spent close to 6000rupees(SGD200++) shopping around liao.. never had this shopping fever before.. better start curbing this bad habit before it becomes un-curable!!! hahaha..

as you think the iti will continue, it ended.. we parted with Shannon from "Fashion Folks" as i think the young couple seems pretty tired.. going up and down.. ahahah.. but, thats not really the end for us.. but, i will try to cut short the following iti...

we continued our day by heading back home first, as Jimmy didn't feel like coming along.., then, to Spencer Plaza.. before making a trip to "Raganathan Street", for shopping of books, lastly, "Pelita" for our dinner!

had a hella a day on 25/12/2005... wooohooo! :X

lastly, before i end this posting.. for the rest of this yr, i will be posting up several other postings regarding the happenings of 2005.. as a kind of reflection thingie.. *grinz*

so, drop by more frequently if you are not bored by my life.. :P

P.S.:took quite an amount of pictures during the trip.. from two cameras.. total sums up to 60MB of pictures!! :D

Saturday, December 24, 2005

slept from the time i reached home from work yesterday.. approximately, had a rest of over 12hrs.. didn't have my dinner.. coz i feel nausea..

didn't have a good rest though.. first coz of the sickness, i have been twisting and tossing around my bed.. secondly, was coz of the "coldness" i feel.. even though the fan was off for the whole night.. thirdly, early in the morning, theres this loud "music"(tamil) sound accompanying our ear drums!!! even till now, it is still playing!! argh!

but, when i woke up.. i feel slightly better... still, having doubts in whether the virus has been cleared...

why? coz i m still suffering from some after-effects of it..

having bodyaches all over... when i cough, my rib cage hurts.. then, when i sneeze, my head hurts... and, when i swallow my saliva, my throat hurts.. woohoo... !

anyway, hope i can recover in time... coz, i will be going outta Chennai City tomorrow! where to? to a place known as Mahapadipuram for a chill up trip with the singaporean couple whom i kept mentioning in my previous postings... looking forward to it... but, hopefully, i don't spend too much... hahaha... ;)

Thursday, December 22, 2005

been trying to work out on ways to retrieve print services without using the official package bundled in sun's jdk...

oh man.. this is a tedious job.. so tough till i think i gonna surrender soon...

yea.. u might think its easy as there are so many external packages to achieve the task.. but, there ain't any open-source ones!!! argh...!!!

getting quite pek chek over this issue.. but, shall curb my temper over such stuffs... sometimes, things occur beyond your control, thus, you shouldn't get upset over it as you know.. you ain't in the control!

but, the sheer thought of this being my first assignment, and failure isn't an option... hai.. how how how..??? how i find the answer on how to achieve it ASAP..

anyway, very likely, we will be leaving Chennai this weekend to the outskirts of Tamil Nadu.. woohoo.. finally.. a trip outta the city.. something new and will therefore, be an experience! *winks*

Sunday, December 18, 2005

woo... another weekend is abt to pass... gonna be left with 5 more weekends.. officially, shld be 4 more weekends as the last weekend will be spent on flying here and there.. :X

hmmm... didn't really get to do anything much during this sat as the weather is always, behaving unpredictably... having like frequent showers... on and off kind of situation.. *sighz*

the only thing we did on sat was like going out for lunch... and dinner.. where we had them? at the same restaurant, Pelita... hahaha.. in total, for sat, i had 1 Roti Canai, which is also known as Roti Prata Kosong... (but, their prata is really very big serving one.. its like 3 kosong added up together...), 1 Roti Bom, which is also known as Bomb Prata(Mixed with sugar and milk carnation..), 1 Roti Pisang, just like gorang pisang.. but, its in the form of Prata... and 1 Mee Rebus... LOL... all these for the day... u bet.. its so damn filling.. wahahha...

(this time round, i can't blog in Chinese as too many malay food are involved... :X)

don't know what to blog.. everyday here seems to be so routined... eat, slp, slp, play, bathe, watch tv.. thats all.. hahah.. not like we wanna do the same stuffs throughout.. just that the weather really doesn't permit us to do things like exploring, etc... grrr.. talking abt weather.. we walked in the rain while heading back home from dinner.. the weather is so cold lor! its as if u are in the air conditioned room.. w/o clothing.. that kinda climate lor.. hahaha.. damn fun.. something which i can't do in Singapore.. :X

having quite alot of fun nowadays.. starting to appreciate things here.. just like a small baby getting comfortable with a new environment.. *giggles* :)

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

anyway, went thru several java forums.. and, i found this quote, "Believers are happy people while Doubters are wiser people!" of course.. i have edited some of the words.. but, listed the ones which i found exceptionally meaningful.. hahaha..

don't you just find this quote meaningful?? woohoo... to be happy, you just got to believe... to be wiser, you just got to start doubting!!! (nope.. not saying that doubting on your partner for fidelity will make you wiser.. *chuckles*)

now... more about my life here... been working on my application throughout the day... aiyoo!! so tired.. facing java all day.. soon, i will turn into a java geek.. bleahz.. =P

still, i am a big big big big big gap away from completion.. (oh.. come on.. my assignment is self-assigned.. who will ever stop expecting new functions and stuffs.. imagine yourself playing the client and developer.. woohoo.. sometimes, u just want to take a knife and stab urself.. :X)

ahh... abit crappy now.. still waiting for the taxi to come.. supposingly to be here by 1745hrs... now, its already 1805hrs.. always need to wait for the taxi for abt an hr.. so, i doubt i will be leaving this place any sooner.. :X BUT... i am going to go to the canteen and grab a bite! woohoo!!! *drOoLs*

Tuesday, December 13, 2005

hmmm... actually, i have long realised this... that is... its always easier to be a bad person than a good one...

Being a good person, you won't be remembered for the numerous things you have done.. which benefit others in a way or two... but, whenever this good person commits the slightest wrong, whether its a known mistake or otherwise, this person will definitely be condemn...

why is this so? maybe, everyone feels that this good person is always doing good things.. therefore, no point of remembering what he/she did.. but, when the beautiful picture start to have a small flaw, everything will turn into a big "hu-ha"... isn't it.. ?

conclusion? be a bad person.. and, be remembered for one good thing you have done.. :)

Sunday, December 11, 2005

yesterday was a day of staying-home-and-game saturday... just stayed at home and played game throughout...

nothing much happened... but, just that, when i was out with yh for dinner at abt 2100hrs(Chennai's time)... while walking back, we saw a shooting star... we were like, "did you see that!?" hahaha... yeap... we did make a wish each... well, my wish was pretty simple.. just wishing someone well.. thats all... heh heh...

why? we stayed home was due to the weather... Chennai was actually expecting a cyclone... but, it didn't come at all... maybe coz it is waiting for wolverine to come.. :X

there are some words which i wish to say... but, wait till i feel like saying, then, i will post up again... :)

Friday, December 09, 2005

firstly, our apartment's bell rang at about 0850hrs(Chennai's time).. we were all thinking.. die.. sure we have got Muthu to send us to work today as he is always early to fetch us.. never known, it turned out to be a "salesman-looking" like driver which came.. why i said that, coz he was like wearing a long sleeve short together with a tie.. who knows.. a taxi driver wearing tie.. in india... i know it does exist in Singapore whereby taxi driver wears tie.. that is if they are driving a mercedes taxi.. but, it is super rare to see one wearing tie when he is just driving a mini van.. hahaha..

when we got into the taxi, he claims that he speak english.. we were like.. "hmm... you sure?".. why? coz his english is pretty hard for us to understand.. not coz its too sophisicated.. becoz his english has this mix of indian accent with tamil words in it.. we definitely have a hard time understanding what he was trying to say.. hahaha.. not long later, he started to introduce the place(Chennai) to us.. i was like thinking... "is he trying to train himself to be a tour guide??" hahaha.. interesting guy.. after the introduction session, he started to ask abt the language in our country(Singapore).. and he told us that he is a Muslim.. ahh.. we have two Muslim in our group.. tat is Nassa and Saiful.. so, Nassa talked to him for awhile before he told us tat he is an Arabic.. this moment, yh and i look at each other.. we were thinking.. how come he is like "EVERYTHING" ?? hahaha.. damn funny sia.. but i would say that this guy is trying to learn as many things as he could.. which is pretty nice to see that.. considering tat would definitely enrich his understanding.. hahaha.. one of the most interesting guy i met ever since i landed in Chennai.. :P

anyway, heard from our immediate supervisor in Singapore at our host company that there will be a group of 5 girls coming over on 15th Jan. 2006.. we were like.. "wa! so adventurous of the girls!".. hahaha.. seriously.. i find them super adventurous lor.. so, was wondering for awhile.. why did they make such a decision to come? hahaha... maybe just to receive some experience/exposure to a developing country.. so, responding from a request by our supervisor, i started writing a "survival" manual for them to reference.. hahaha.. yet to complete.. but, i can say it should be their manual which can help them ease their stay here at Chennai... :X

alright... gonna get back to work.. chill, guys! i will take care of myself even though the weather reports is stating that a cyclonic situation is heading for Chennai! =X

Thursday, December 08, 2005

hmmm... finally, had a good night slp... minus off the fact that i gotta wake up earlier this morning to do some breakfast cooking... (err.. nope.. not like those sumptuous breakfast treat u have when ur mum cook for u back in Singapore..) *grinz*

anyway, we, yh and i, went to the hospital yesterday during our lunch break.. NOPE.. not in an AMBULANCE.. LOL... we walked there.. -_-"

waited for quite sometime before we finally get to consult a doctor.. (btw, they don't have any queue system here.. what u do is, you gotta wait outside this consultation room and wait for the nurse to call you.. as we were sitting down on the bench, our queue was "jumped" several times.. that explains why we waited for so long...) soon later, the doctor brought us to a consultation room.. and, i can tell you.. the doctor simply doesn't look like a doctor.. -_-" firstly, the doctor's height is like one head shorter than me.. around there.. secondly, she is a lady of age close to 60, i think.. thirdly, it was an incident which occured when she tried to take a jab on YH.. LOL..

initially, she was asking if yh and i wanted to have a "drip".. thinking it is too much of a hassle taking a "drip", we asked for an injection and some medicine instead.. so, yup.. the doctor went out to get the injections.. soon after her return, i looked at the syringe she was holding.. OMG.. the needle is so huge in size.. LOL.. never mind abt that.. so, she asked yh to take off his pants.. but, yh, didn't really catch her until i told him in Chinese that she wanna jab him via his butt.. LOL.. so, i asked the doctor if the jab could be taken on the arm, luckily, she said yeah... LOL.. else, i really can't imagine what is gonna happen to his or my butt.. coz, when she was trying to jab yh's arm, the syringe actually broke! LOL.. its either she pushed it too hard.. or, yh moved.. but, i think its the former.. coz yh said he didn't move.. LOL.. for that, yh's arm was bleeding and now, suffering from a "blue black" mark.. LOL..

as for me, lucky enough, nothing happened at all.. just that, the mark the needle left on my arm is pretty big.. this explains how "huge" the needle is.. :X

after my jab, i asked the doc for a medical receipt.. as she was explaining to us the medicines she is prescribing to us, she didn't really take note of my request.. btw, the way they handle medicine here, very funny sia.. lol.. she just simply give us medicine w/o telling us what type it is.. luckily, both of us have no drug allergy.. else, the consequences will be undesireable.. :X i suspect the pills she gave us is probably some anti-biotics.. don't really know.. but, all i know is, everytime we take medication, it will be 4 different pills to take.. so many.. LOL.. -_-"

alright.. enough of all these.. shall tell you all more about any interesting stuffs another time.. its time to work on my small project.. :)

Wednesday, December 07, 2005

as usual, sleepless night.. woke up several times, i think shld be 4-5times, just to visit the toilet.. lucky enough, the toilet is just beside my room.. -_-"

i seriously simply just lost count on my number of toilet visits.. the visits are so frequent that i think, for the entire trip, i should have simply finish visiting the toilet for at least once a day... or even more.. this is based on the fact that i have yet passed the half mark for the trip.. *weehee....*

it all started when we had our lunch during the saturday afternoon.. when we went to a buffet lunch around our area.. its like.. we have been visiting this restaurant outlet for several times... its coz the food is pretty nice.. most importantly, its quite budgeted for all of us.. so, we just keep patronizing it.. after that, we took a almost 4-5KM walk to the "Spencer Plaza"... as usual... i think this time round, it should be abt 6-7KM... coz we started out from the restaurant.. which is further from our apartment to Spencer.. but, thats not the main point... the main point is, when we reached there, shopped for awhile.. (btw, i bought a Struts Guidebook there.. which is like less than SGD20... can never find such price in Singapore.. =X) then, visited a "Fruits" outlet which is within the Plaza itself... the place is pretty posh in look.. and, the fruits everything look pretty fresh.. had a California Quencher(Watermelon Juice) and Strawberry Milkshake... yeah... was feeling thirsty.. thats why i took that much... costed me abt 65rupees(SGD2).. cheap.. but, that was just the start of the nightmare!!! -_-"

while walking back.. it started to drizzle.. as yh wasn't feeling very well, i walked slowly with him while the rest ran home.. so, was pretty drenched when we arrive back home.. lasted for awhile.. before deciding to retire for the night.. it was abt SG time 2300hrs when i decided to turn in.. but, who knows.. turned and tossed on the bed for abt 30mins.. still can't fall aslp.. (the fruit juice was still trying to be dissolved in my stomach).. so, decided to go to the hall where the rest of them are.. and, just play some games.. that was when i started to feel my stomach isn't in the right state as it should be... was suspecting that i am suffering from indigestion.. so, took some medicine and was finally able to call it a night at around SG time 0500hrs.. and i thought it was over... nope!!! woke up several times throughout the night to "clear" the fruit juice from my stomach..

finally, day break.. i woke up.. went to take my bath... in the end, i spent abt 30mins in the bathroom... why? coz i cleared my stomach thrice!!! wah lao... after the bath, the story still hasn't end.. cleared it for another 3times.. -_-"

guess i got a mild food poisoning.. the same happened for Jimmy and Yong Hon... wahhaa... the three of us just continue complaining... LOL... so, yup.. that was how i spent my sunday.. "clearing" the "mines"... :D

btw, we ordered Subway for lunch.. and it costed us each SGD4.. just for the sandwich.. so exp.. guess this is gonna be the first and last time we are gonna order subway delivery... :X

Wednesday, November 30, 2005

don't know why i chose this title.. but, think its very applicable for those who are self-centred... its probably time for these kinda pple to wake their idea up and think of whats happening around them.. *grinz*

if u have been reading, you will remember that during one of my earlier posting, we had taken a dishonest taxi driver's trip here.. costing us abt 80+rupees when the normal trip only cost us abt 65rupees... yesterday morning's ride was again by him... this time round, he took us along a longer route... the trip costed us 90rupees!!! crapz... when we reached our destination, he even asked us whether we need him to fetch us back... -_-" oh man... dream on... from 65rupees to 90rupees... why would i wanna bother myself by paying so much more... ahhaha... crapz.. anyway, we took down his name and vehicle number.. everytime when we call for taxi, we will mention not to have this driver anymore.. bleahZ~

Sunday, November 27, 2005

yup.. in my indulgence of laziness, i feel the reluntance of updating my blog.. don't ask me why.. as i have simply got no idea too..

maybe coz of some stuffs which happened in the office.. or, it could be the lack of visitors.. or even maybe coz i am just plain lazy...

i think its probably a mixture of all three possibilities..

anyway, went to "Singapore Visitors' Centre" today... met a guy named "Shannon".. he is a Singaporean.. he is married to a Singaporean lady here... who happens to be the one in charge of the centre... and ya.. before you start guessing... Shannon is not her subordinate.. he is just helping up there as he do not need to work on the weekend... he has his own business here.. wait.. why am i describing him here? LOL..

he is a pretty funny and nice guy... told us many things about the place here.. initially, he was laughing at us... for? for why on earth are we attached to this place! hahaha... we didn't know why we chose this place either.. don't get the wrong intention.. he is not telling us the place isn't good... its just that, it is pretty weird for someone of the age of ours to be attached here.. heeZ

but, he filled us up with lots of information abt what we shld do here.. he told us we should sign ourselves up with a local agent and visit some place which we will never get to in Singapore... places like to a hill-top... to a nature reserve area... woohoo!!! so tempted to go take a look at these places... anyway, i took down the name of the places... hoping that i might have the chance to use it...

this meeting with him is very nice and informative.. but, it also strike me in a sense whereby... he is a NTU graduate... when he started work, he was assigned here.. why would a NTU graduate come here... for job... but, why did he chose this job in the first place.. does it mean that Singapore have no placing for a graduate to "survive" in... oh man... Singapore employment market is getting so saturated.. future seems to be so bleak!!! *sad*

oh ya.. talking abt sad.. i think, i am starting to have symptons of depression whenever i am alone.. ya.. tats abt me these few days..

ps: it has been raining this few nights here.. almost every night, its raining.. like now, it is having a heavy downpour.. *sigh*

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

if you are not technically inclined, please ignore this posting.. i am just trying to whine my pain out!

hmm... started out the day with my newly found lover... her name is "Struts".. hahaha...

been trying to understand my "new lover" for the past weekend.. till now, i only know the basics of her... oh man.. whats more.. the basics i know is really basics!!!

this is such a difficult thing to do.. trying to understand a framework and know how it works.. difficulty level, 99! have so many online tutorials to refer to.. but, none of them are accurate! the writer always miss out several parts in their documentation... thus, making the whole thing not workable... grrr!

besides trying to understand this "lover" of my, i have also got to adapt to a new coupled along software, an IDE, "Eclipse"... why am i leaving my JCreator? coz Eclipse have got plug-ins that can debug and let me understand my "lover" characteristics... the struts-config.xml.. now, trying to install the plug-in(for the very first time) into Eclipse...

should have started using Eclipse long ago.. then, i wouldn't have this problem of needing to understand all these at one go...

guess this is part and parcel of life... i don't seem to have a choice.. do i... ? :X

alright.. today is a rainy day! its raining in the morning... stopped for awhile.. then, rained in the afternoon... stopped for another while... then, continued raining during the night... hahaha... something is wrong with the "tap"!!! someone, get a plumber to get it done! :X

anyway, abt the afternoon raining session... oh man... its really weird lor... i think the downpour was there for a purpose... to stop us from going lunch! must be! coz, the moment we stepped outta the building, it was drizzling... halfway to the main gate, it started to rain heavily... never mind.. we decided to try our luck by visiting the restaurant opposite our office.. the moment we reach there, it is still under renovation! yeah.. we know its under renovation.. just that wanna try our luck.. the moment we finished deciding where to head to, it was already raining cats and dogs!!! wah lao... we are destinated to be stucked there!!! so, we stood outside the ice cream shop beside the restaurant.. hoping that thte rain will somehow stop.. but, it didn't! so, we stayed there, chatted abit... then, decided to brave the rain to rush over back to our office building... yup.. we ran in the rain!! went back to our workplace... settled down for awhile... and called for the pizza... but, before we make the call, i peeped outside to look at the situation.. whether it is flooding or what.. but, to my surprise! the rain STOPPED!!! wah lao... win liao lor... so, we wasted money to call the pizza... had lunch only at 1430hrs.. SG time 1700hrs...

bleah... and, today, waited 2hrs 30mins for the taxi to come again... it was suppose to come at 1745hrs... ended up, it only came at about 2015hrs!!! yeah.. only reached home at Singapore's timing, 2345hrs.. ridiculous.. again stuck with all this taxi stuffs... bleah!

nonetheless, i guess everyone is starting to adapt to the environment le.. coz, this time round, although we were still abit pissed... but, not as pissed as before.. yup... moulding us to become more patient pple...:X

heh heh... alright.. got to continue to do my work already.. blog tomorrow morning when i reach office! ciaos.. ;)

Monday, November 21, 2005

weee! finally.. today morning, it rained! i think it brings in the cool more than the blues! but, due to the rain, it make me feel so lazy! didn't feel like coming as the weather is so good for a nice slp! bleah! but, do i seem like i have a choice? moreover, there isn't any "wake up" call from the pigeons today... maybe its due to the rain, they went into hiding!

hahaha... today, we were assigned the "put aeroplane" driver.. if you have read my previous posting, you will know who i am referring to.. the Mr. loads of "Sorry"! hahaha... as usual, he will always greet us good morning and hopefully we won't mention anything about the "aeroplane" incident.. hahaha... which we didn't.. anyway, he was driving so fast today.. and, we almost met with an accident(*touch wood*) with an auto... it was like going towards each other at such high speed.. luckily the both turned opposite direction of each other.. else, we will probably be on our way back to Singapore soon... :X

btw, forgot to mention about sunday.. slept till the afternoon.. abt SG time 1330hrs.. had such a great rest then.. hehehe... during the late afternoon, went out to the nearby supermarket, Food World, to get our weekly groceries.. on the way, we decided to go explore the area for a restaurant which our Singapore colleague actually brought us to during our 1st weekend here.. so, we walked even further.. we walked so much that we ended up going to another Food World branch... i think, we could have easily walked 2++KM from our apartment.. as we weren't very sure on the way to the restaurant, we decided to go into the supermarket to purchase our groceries and call it a day... hahaha.. on our way back, we decided to have our first meal of the day! that is to a Malaysian chain fast food restaurant, Pelita.. i took a look at my watch.. it was abt SG timing 1730hrs before the first spoonful of food enter my mouth on sunday! cool hor... hahaha.. ate till pretty full.. the meal also brought in the first mouthful of fruits i had during my 3 week stint here! had a cup of apple juice.. which costed me abt 45rupees(SGD1.40++).. hahaha...

had a thought thru during this weekend... been on the spending spree.. bad bad bad.. i better start saving up abit before everything is gone! =P

Sunday, November 20, 2005

why? coz, we walked from our apartment to Spencer Plaza, a shopping mall which is pretty big in size... somewhat comparable to our Takashimaya + Ngee Ann City... in fact, shld be slightly bigger... yup... a walk journey there shld take us abt 30+ mins...

on our journey there... we passed by this white coloured building... dun know what it is... there were quite a number of military men there... guarding the place.. then, on my hand, i held a camera... when we walked pass one of the guards, he shouted at me.. asking me if thats a camera... i went.. "duh..." isn't it obvious enough... ? and he told me to keep it... weird leh... there isn't any signs saying i shld not carry a camera wat... but, nevertheless, i did what he commanded me to... coz, he was holding a gun!!! what can i do... :X

Settled down at the place and headed straight to Subway... for our brunch! yup... so pathetic... only had our lunch at around 1330hrs+(Chennai's timing)... abt Singapore's timing 1600hrs... hahaha... quite a filling meal... only that i shld have gotten myself a meal instead... paid 104rupees in total for a medium 7up with a 6-inch tuna! the rest of them paid 109rupees for a medium sized drink, a sandwich which is also 6-inch... additionally, either a cookie or potato chips!!! bleah! shld have just given that extra 5rupees... didn't know... >_<

walked around the mall for about 3-4hrs... in the process, we walked pass this shop where most of the products is leather clothings... so, went in to have a look... not bad... priced at about 2600rupees for this jacket which i quite like it... then, talked awhile... he dropped the price by 10%... which is about 2340rupees... wondering if i should buy before going back to Singapore... at least i will have a memory of this place with the jacket... :P

after shopping, went on to have our dinner... waa.. the restaurant we went was like.. so expensive lor! my dinner costed me about SGD7-8... dun think its worth it... not really fantastic... after the dinner session, we decided to take a taxi back... but, someone among us like kinda against it... insisting that we walk back... but, the place is already so dark... why shld we risk it.. right? so, nonetheless, i tried calling the taxi companies... ya.. as usual.. use my hp.. even though among us, there are quite a number of local SIM cards... but, its always using my one... dun understand why also... called the first company which we always call.. "Sree Devi"... but, they said it will take us 1hr before the taxi can come... so, i called the second company, "Fast Track"... initially, the operator told me 30mins.. then, he changed his statement to an hr odd... so, we decided not to call.. in between, there are some twist abt... which i shall not mention...

ultimately, we still walked back la... but, before we took our way back to our area, in fact, its just outside the plaza, this man approached us... saying he is a taxi driver... so, we told him the area we are heading.. and he asked for 200rupees... damn it... why would we pay him so much... ??? so, jimmy said 70rupees to him... he don't seem to quite like the price.. but, pester us to take his taxi... in the end, he told us he will settle for 50rupees... on the condition that we visit this "shop" he mention... knowing that this is a total scam... i insisted that we shld not follow him... though this offer seems to be abit tempting to the rest.. as i have heard of many many stories whereby visiting these shops will mean that we defintely have to buy some lousy stuffs... i simply was "turned off" when he talked about the shop... so, i just simply walked away... leaving the rest with no choice but to follow on... luckily that bugger never follow us... else, i will just report him to the authorities... out to cheat us... common sight for foreigners... so, yup... :)

in the end, we took abt another 30mins to reach home... ah!!! so tired! been moving up and down... dun feel like reading my "Struts" book...

oh.. btw, i yet to mention this... i am already assigned to one of the on-going project handled by my host company, Scandent Solutions... althought i yet to know what i will be doing there... but, i was tasked by my Project Manager to study on the new technologies in the industry like Struts, Spring AOP and Tapestry... though i am new to it... yeah.. i really mean new... i will still try to learn it.. since its gonna help me in the future... why not? :)

Saturday, November 19, 2005

that seems to be a situation which is possible when the three of us, YH, Jimmg and i, have been sitting in the hall waiting for Nassa and Saiful to return from their bank trip!

Err.. yeah!!! they are finally back!!! hungry....

but, before we can move off... i need to do my laundry first... else, no clothing to wear! hahaha.. not that serious la... just that i wanna clear it before sunday.. so that i can rest~ but, i think the guys wanna go out on sunday... to watch harry potter... hopefully, i will have ample rest before i start another week of work!

Friday, November 18, 2005

yeap... its friday again! 2 coming days for me to rest myself.. get energized! weeheee~

today, as usual, was awaken by the pigeons again! this time round, they were fighting sia.. can you imagine the amount of noise generated by their fights? oh man..

btw, something weird happened to me yesterday night.. was lying on the sofa watching tv.. then, also, doing some exercises like sit ups.. the rest of them we at the dining table playing games.. outta a sudden, i just doze off.. like blackout sia.. haahha.. was feeling so damn tired outta a sudden.. came to me like someone gave me some slping pills to eat.. :X but, i was still able to pull myself up from the sofa and walked to my room.. was lying flat on the bed.. but, still able to wake up and remove all the stuffs that were around my bed.. after that, switched off the lights and sent out a SMS.. then, knock out till this morning!!! wonderful... abt a total of 8-9hrs of slp.. sounds like a pig right? dun know.. but, i definitely enjoyed it.. :X

now, talk abt work... we were asked to meet our immediate supervisor yesterday to discuss on the projects we will be assigned to... there will be 2 of us assigned to the same project while the rest will be splitted individually.. personally, i fancy the former more than the latter.. reason for it is that i am more interested in the nature of the industry the product is developed on.. if i can't get that, then, i would probably go for the one under the banking industry.. :X sad ah... how come they never assign us any Singapore projects... if they do, i will feel more "homely".. hahaha.. :D

ok.. now, on the general part of my trip to Chennai.. soon, while into the weekend, it marks the 3rd weekend here... overall, the guys and i are starting to adapt to the way of living here.. though its pretty different from the usual lifestyle we had in Singapore, but, we are still able to live with it..

Thursday, November 17, 2005

woohooo... weekend is around the corner! we have had programmes already for the weekend!!!

we are gonna go to Chennai's posh shopping centre known as Spencer's Plaza... last weekend, Jimmy and Nassa went there... they actually walked there.. it took them about 40-50mins of walking... wonder are we walking this weekend or taking a taxi.. i would like to try walking though.. on the other hand, i also feel like taking a taxi.. i think i would suggest them walking there and taking a taxi back! hahaha.. whatever the case, shall go there to take a look..

Heard that things there are pretty expensive.. well, shall only believe it when i been there myself.. i am rather stubborn... must witness first before making a conclusion.. heehee.. :P

Anyway, the previous entry was pretty short coz i was in the hurry to leave the office.. why? something which u will never guess happened!! the taxi this turn round was on-time! LOL... finally... but, the driver's vehicle makes me kinda worried.. its the very first time i see a vehicle's engine stalling while on the move.. woohoo.. but, what do you expect? I mean, they don't drive very new vehicles wat.. but still, as long as it moves, it will nevertheless be known as a vehicle! hahaha.. but, the ride home was also an eye opener.. coz, somehow, the driver took the way passing the posh area of Chennai... not bad.. quite nice.. it would be fabulous if the traffic was to be in a more organised manner.. :P

Oh, while on the way to work today, i saw the "Singapore Visitor Centre" opened in Chennai by Singapore Tourism Board... shall visit it this weekend... might be able to see something familiar there... Singaporeans!!! :D

alright.. now, to my friends who are somehow "suffering" in Singapore, do take good care of yourself.. may it be Major Project or Student Internship Programme! go go, jiayou!!! :D

*ps: will be assigned my project team later... abit anxious to know on what i am going to be tasked to developed! :X

alright... today is wednesday... and, it is the midweek of our 3rd week in India, Chennai!

Well, as usual, was woken up by pigeon's "feeding" sound... every morning, without fail, there will be this pigeon nest exactly outside the window panel of my room(btw, i share the room with Yonghon).. always, about 0730hrs(Chennai's timing, Singapore's timing would be 1000hrs), the pigeon would come and feed its young.. they are always making weird weird noises which i really can't stand at all.. moreover, whats more is the noises actually awaken me from the much needed rest which i gotta have in order to have ample strenght to last me thru the day!! grr... so, just like what i always do, i would just simply go to the window panel and hit it twice... if not, i would open the window and the pigeon will fly away... leaving its young there... i reckon that the little young one can't fly yet.. so, yup.. it was left there all alone..

dun worry.. i m not the evil one that will push the young one down three levels to the ground.. heehee.. *grinz*

today was abit exceptional... while bathing, i started hearing the pigeon's sound again..(btw, the bathroom is just beside our room).. i took a peek outside thru the window panel and i found out that the pigeon was actually now at our neighbour's window panel looking at its young.. oh man.. it suddenly strikes me that i m so evil! depriving the pigeon from feeding its young... *gosh*.. what have i done..!!!

so, like i always do, i started thinking loads while bathing... and i started to realise once again.. humans are just so selfish.. selfish in the sense that in order to achieve comfort in our own style, we just simply ignore about the surroundings.. at a very rare circumstances, we would spare a thought for whats happening around us.. hmmm.. well, prior to this thought, i will try not to be selfish anymore.. shall let the pigeon continue to have its nest there and continue feeding its young..

let the feeding sound irritate Yonghon now... since he is slping nearer to the window panel.. wahhaha... if there comes a chance whereby i can record down the sound make by the pigeon, i will let you people hear it... and judge how it can awake u from ur slp.. :P

oh, btw, waited for the taxi yesterday night till 2045hrs(2315hrs in Singapore!) before we manage to get onto one(as a matter of fact, we did not get ANY taxi at all.. we took Auto(a three wheeler) home.. as there are a total of 5 students, we can only split into two groups.. each Auto costs us 50rupees.. which sums our transportation fee for the day to about 40rupees).. arrgh! this taxi thingie is getting on the nerves of everyone! lets hope the arrangement make by our company would be a much better one.. coz, i think everyone is getting pretty affected by this.. we were only able to eat at about Singapore's timing 0000hrs... had pizza delivery as Jimmy wasn't feeling well.. hahahaha... gonna be a "junk boy" like my mum always grade me... :D

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

the time now is 1850hrs at Chennai... and, i m still in the office... hahahaha...

not coz i too hardworking.. but then, am still waiting for the taxi to come... zzz...

while waiting, i shall just stay at my work-station and stare blankly at the monitor.. since i have already faced it for the past few hrs... makes no difference if i just stare at it for half an hr to 45mins more.. isn't it?

anyway, went to another vegetarian restaurant today for lunch... it costed me 150rupees... its equivalent to SGD6... wonder... why is it my meals are getting more and more expensive.. and i wonder... can carry on wondering.. hahaha..

oh well, nonetheless, the food was quite good... service was great.. just that i din have enuff to fill my stomach to the brink.. hahaha...

another day has passed.. woohooo.. going to weekend soon.. heehee.. :P

Monday, November 14, 2005

its monday... usually, in Singapore, monday will be filled with loads of work.. but, in Chennai, it seems like Monday is a slow start of the week...

Today ain't a good start for me too... first thing in the morning, the driver who always pick us up in the morning put our aeroplane again! the funny thing is that during saturday morning, supposingly our off day, he came!!! at 0850hrs somemore!!! can you imagine.. everyone is slping.. and, he, at our doorstep, pressing the bell??? the first ring, no one pick it up... i took it for granted that one or two of my flat mates are already awake.. so, i simply ignore it and try hard to go back to sleep... but, few minutes later.. the bell came along! argh.. pissed, i woke up and went to the door to see who the weird visitor are we having at the doorstep.. it turns out to be the driver!!! >_< he thought that we gotta work on sat. too.. the moment i opened the door, we had this conversation

Driver: No work today??Me: No... (Giving a very very slpy face)Driver: Oh! Sorry sorry!Me: (Shaking my head in a dismay manner)Driver: Sorry sorry! I come on monday!Me: Okok...Driver: Sorry sorry!

So, tat is the first conversation of my saturday... a lorry load of "Sorry"..then, on monday(tats today and what i mentioned earlier), we waited patiently till 0910hrs.. he din turn up sia... wa lao.. put our aeroplane!!! kuku leh.. tsk.. cannot trust him one lor... second time put our aeroplane le.. grrr...

my weekend ended here... in what kinda manner? in a home staying + rotting manner...

hahaha... just stayed home thru-out the weekend... sometimes, going online to see if anyone or someone is online... but, no one came... aiyah! so, besides being a no-life person at home, i finished up my clothes washing... and stuffs... completed what is needed to be completed... and, cool! everything done! only that i have another load of dirty clothing to wash... tats all...

hmmm.. nothing much to blog about... just feeling bored and doing nothing now... internet is not interesting at all.. especially MSN... hai! >_<

Sunday, November 13, 2005

2nd weekend in Chennai… hmmm… time passes quite fast wor… which is of my liking… heehee…!

Anyway, been a no life in Chennai… so, if you are wondering what can be done here, let me tell you… basically, its slp, wake up, bathe, go work, work, lunch, work, wait for taxi, home, bathe, go online, iron clothes, slp… and the cycle continues… basically, my life in Chennai only evolves around work… hahaha… totally, if you notice, there isn’t any much entertain… only the going online part… that’s the only thing I depend on in bring entertain to my life… brightening it up… but, sometimes, I don’t get the type of entertainment needed to fulfill myself up… (oh plz… if you are thinking that type of “entertainment” as serving adult websites, u are ought to be shot!) *sigh*

For the second week, many things happened… starting from one of my flat mate fell sick during the weekend… and, the virus mutated… spread to his room-mate then, to my room-mate… my room-mate’s case was quite serious till he needed medical attention… was accompanied with our Training officer, who happens to be the Asst. Vice President of the department, and an admin staff, I think… hmmm… the place is pretty run down, but, still, it is okay for a hospital bah… it least there are ample manpower around… in fact, for a hospital of its size, it seems to me that they have so many different doctors… a lot of them somemore… can you imagine? The size of a 3 story building, having around 30-40 doctors? Impressive… :D

Next thing to mention is the rain… as I have always concluded, the weather at Chennai is really very unpredictable… the place can be filled with sunshine and the next moment, rain! Really really unpredictable… unlike Singapore’s… still will show u the dark dark sky first… before raining… here, even there isn’t any dark clouds, it can automatically rain… just like a tap… as and when you turn it on, the water just flows! Hahaha… lousy analogy… but, ya… concept is almost the same… LOL!

Oh, we started to go to another restaurant to have our meal… previously, we kept patronizing “Dynasty” which is a Chinese restaurant and located in a hotel… this time, we went to another Chinese restaurant, “Mainland China”. Initially, we thought its going to be very costly… because the place is very well furnished! And, when we asked about the price, the waiter told us 199rupee including all taxes for their buffet! We were like… huh… quite expensive leh… then, we took a look at the menu before we decided to have the buffet… why? I saw one of the dish in the menu which states “Peking Duck”… I was like… waaa… got peking duck leh… then, I look at the price, I had a bigger “WOW”! its priced at 1000rupees!!! >_< that is like SGD40 lor… winner sia… then, we decided to move off to see whats on their buffet menu… to my surprise, its quite nice leh… the food is nice… the ambience is good… woohooo… found another nice restaurant to have lunch at… somemore, buffet… and, the variety is quite nice… heehee… luckily we went there to try lor… else, we will only be stucked at “Dynasty” throughout our stay… 

Another adventurous thing that happened was during Friday night, while heading home in the taxi, the taxi went outta petrol… we were like… stunned lor… stuck at a major junction… and, its raining and such… wah lao… what a day it was lor… but, I managed to take a picture of the junction while waiting for the “backup” vehicle our driver called… besides taking picture, I also realize that the people here like to urinate anywhere at anytime… even while its raining, they will either stop their vehicle or bicycle to come down and urinate at the walls… even if it is in a major junction… they will just urine one lor… this kinda sight can NEVER be seen in Singapore liao lor… its like we were there for about 30mins, I saw 4-5 of them doing it at different times lor… win liao! Wanted to take a pic of them urinating… but, decided not to as it is quite rude to do so… LOL… :D

*paused*

Ok… just got back from a trip to the bank… Saiful needed to go draw money as his “supply” is low… in order to accommodate to the bank’s timing, we had to wake up early to visit the place… the distance between the bank and our apartment is slightly more than 1.5km… we only managed to arrive at the bank after abt 20mins walk… its like from Plaza Singapura to Orchard MRT Station distance… I think… Anyway, when we reached the bank, we were stopped by the security guard… he thought we are some poor people as we were all wearing shirts and bermudas… he only realize that we are customers of the bank when Saiful took out the draft cheque… aiyah… like that also cannot see how different we are… especially when Yonghon and I are there… skin color difference so much liao… hahaha… (no offence at all…) ok… back to the main purpose… when we went to the counter staff requesting to draft the money out, the staff actually told us we can’t… quite ridiculous lor… its like… she was saying that we needed some manager’s signature… and stuffs… wah laoz… draft so troublesome meh? Must go through so many approvals… then, we deem that the lady couldn’t help us… so, she got her colleague to help instead… hoping a change of situation for our case, we ended up having the same answer as we had… “No, you can’t draw any money from this…” damn!

Alright… gonna spend my weekend at home… lazy to move out… besides that, I dun like the language barrier here… feeling quite irritated… but, looking forward to the night when I can go online and chat with (hmmm…) ;)

Ever since I landed here, I really lost my command in my language… hmmm… wonder why… sighz… hope you all understand my this blog entry… 

Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Ridiculous, that’s the only word in mind for the 4 of us, excluding Saiful.

Why? We were kept waiting for our taxi for abt 1hr 30mins! Can you imagine that? Nonsense… We kept calling their call centre… initially, they told us it will take another 30 mins, we were like.. fine… maybe due to the traffic or something like that… we waited for abt an hr before we are convinced that another call is needed… this time round, they told us another 15mins… alright… maybe coz due to the rain! But, 20mins passed and no taxi came! We called once again… and they said 10mins… determined not to be a kanna sai passenger, we just take it as it came…but, still, it didn’t come along… this time round… I was so damn pissed… I called up and started to speak louder… the previous calls we make by Nasa, which I feel isn’t “powerful” enough…

I think they transferred me to their manager… and he kept telling me that the driver is at the front gate… making sure that things go right this time round, I told him that if I don’t see the taxi, I will give him a call again to let him have a feel of what I m feeling…!

Lucky for him, the taxi came… so damn pissed… can you imagine? 1hr 30mins just for a taxi!? If this occurs in Singapore, I think the taxi company would probably suffer from public scrutiny! All eyes would be on the stupid taxi company… Nonsense…

Anyway, finally, we got our internet connection on our work stations… but, theres a lot of things which can’t be done! Things like, going onto MSN… checking email(yahoo or school’s student mail) etc. sighz… so many restrictions… I wonder how their staff work this way… moreover, its like, they have given us such legacy system to work with… P3 500MHz… and, the software we are using to develop programs is NetBeans! Back in school, with a P4, using of NetBeans cause many jerks and lags… now, with a P3… and, it’s the lower version of P3… what do u think???

Oh man… as commented by one of my flat mate… time passes quite fast… yup… already my 8th day in Chennai… but, I wish the time would pass even faster… seriously, I m homesick!!! Besides home-sickness, I am also friends-sick!!! Miss everyone in Singapore! So sad… but, I shall push on! And, I shall not think too much while in here… I must persevere!!! That’s Aaron, right? :D

Alright… for those who are back at Singapore, enjoy your time! Whether it is attachment or school term, enjoy it to the fullest! As you really can’t imagine how much we are going through now in Chennai… outta 5 of us, 3 already fallen sick… one of us who is tat sick that needs medical attention in one of their local hospital… hai… but, don’t worry! Its not me!(as if anyone would bother if the person is me or not…)

Sunday, November 06, 2005

Just simply hope that time passes as fast as it did for this week… w/o knowing much, one week has passed… which is good! Coz, it meant that my stay here at Chennai is one week lesser!!! Oh well, not to mean that Chennai isn’t good… this place is nice… but, with comparisons over Singapore, I would still prefer the latter… *grinz*

Anyway, quite an adventurous Saturday we had here at Chennai… firstly, the day started out pretty late… why? Coz yh and I slept till 1300hrs++(.SG timing) even though we slept pretty early the night before… I think we had a whopping 10hrs of rest… pig, rite? Hahaha… whatever… we started to wash up and get ready to move out for lunch… but, before we could, our landlord’s wife came over to pay us a visit… with her, a cleaner to help shape up the place… She looks pretty nice… kept asking us whether we have problems here… hahaha… nice lady! 

After she left, we went out for lunch… this time round, we went to a “fast food” restaurant known as “Pelita”… it is a chain restaurant which originated from Malaysia… there, I found many familiar food in its menu… ah! Finally… some familiar looking food… the stuffs there are pretty reasonable… almost of the same pricing with Singapore’s… Reasonable as in the sense of pricing only… if talk abt the quality, I would still prefer Singapore’s… :P

After meal, we went on to “Food World”, a super-mart, to get our groceries… when we got our stuffs and ready to head back, it started to rain… initially, I was pretty reluctant to brave through the rain and get home… reason being so was that nasa, one of my flat mate, isn’t feeling well… was afraid tat his condition might worsen if he run in the rain with us… but, Jimmy, insist on coming back… he said that the chicken meat, which we bought, would smell… so, no choice lor… everyone ran back home lor… u people yet to see the condition of the street when it rains lor… lots and lots of puddle of dirty water! Especially when theres vehicles driving pass… the water will splash up till my knee level lor… might sound exaggerating… but, I can’t deny that there are such cases of water splashing incident lor… aiyah… whatever the case, this is not the type of environment you will have back at Singapore… so, you will not know how much u would appreciate the drainage system of Singapore’s! 

Next, when we reached home, I was engrossed to the VCD, Full House, which I brought over… watched it throughout the whole of the late afternoon… then came evening! Was feeling abit tired… so, went out to the hall to take a breather… and, here… came the most un-expected and “thrilling” incident of the day! Our “cook”, Jimmy, was trying to get dinner ready… he had curry chicken in his menu today! When he was ready to add in the coconut milk, the whole pot of curry chicken exploded!!! Power, right??? Never known that such thing would happen? Look… it did happen! It was hell to us! We were all summoned to clean up the place! “We” excludes Jimmy and Nasa… the former was traumatized while the latter wasn’t feeling well… oh man… we had a “GREAT” time cleaning up the place… but still, we did it! Nice experience we are having here at India, Chennai… right…?

Hahaha… its now 0222hrs(Singapore’s timing)… been waiting ever since 0100hrs… bleah… waiting for what? Plain waiting lor… bleah… shall juz doze off bah… will update u guys on the happenings in Chennai… take care, people… 

p.s.: due to the limitation of bandwidth for our internet connection, posts will be back-dated as i have to save the bandwidth!!! :D